Workplace Pensions & Pension Re-enrolment

Workplace pension compliance is a legal obligation. Re-enrolment is also an opportunity to make sure your scheme is still working for your business and your people.

Is your re-enrolment date approaching?

Every three years, employers are required to re-enrol eligible employees into their workplace pension scheme. It is a mandatory process – with financial penalties for non-compliance – but it is also a valuable opportunity to review whether your pension scheme still works effectively for both your business and your workforce.

Understanding your obligations, meeting your deadlines, and completing your Declaration of Compliance on time can reduce administrative pressure and protect you from The Pensions Regulator’s enforcement action. Becketts works with employers to ensure auto-enrolment and re-enrolment are handled correctly, and that the pension scheme in place is the right one for your organisation.

Workplace Pensions & Auto Enrolment Advice

Your Auto-Enrolment Obligations as an Employer

All UK employers must automatically enrol eligible workers into a qualifying workplace pension. An employee must be auto-enrolled if they are aged 22 to State Pension age, earn more than £10,000 per year, and ordinarily work in the UK. This is not optional — auto-enrolment has been a legal duty since 2012, and over 1.9 million employers have now met their obligations.

The minimum contribution rates for 2025/26 are: employer minimum 3%, employee minimum 5% (including tax relief), total minimum 8% of qualifying earnings. These rates have been in place since April 2019 and are confirmed unchanged for 2026/27.

Employees who do not meet all three criteria are non-eligible jobholders or entitled workers. They have the right to opt in (non-eligible) or join the scheme (entitled workers), and the employer must comply with their request.

Is Your Re-enrolment Date Approaching?

Re-enrolment is required every three years from your original duties start date (or previous re-enrolment date). You have a six-month window to choose your re-enrolment date — starting three months before and ending three months after your third anniversary. The date you choose must apply to your entire workforce.

On that date, you must re-enrol any eligible employee who has opted out of the pension, left the scheme after the opt-out period, or reduced their contributions below the qualifying minimum — provided they still meet eligible jobholder criteria.

Missing your re-enrolment window, or failing to complete your Declaration of Compliance on time, can lead to significant financial penalties from The Pensions Regulator.

What Re-enrolment Involves

1. Choose your re-enrolment date

Select a date within your six-month window. The same date applies to all staff. Record your chosen date — you will need it for your Declaration of Compliance.

2. Assess your workforce

On your re-enrolment date, assess all staff who are not currently active members of the pension scheme. Identify who must be re-enrolled based on their age and earnings.

3. Re-enrol eligible staff

Re-enrol qualifying employees within six weeks of the re-enrolment date. Begin deducting contributions and paying employer contributions from the first pay period.

4. Write to re-enrolled employees

Within six weeks, write to re-enrolled staff to inform them they have been re-enrolled, their contribution rates, and their right to opt out again (which they may do within one month).

5. Complete your Declaration of Compliance

Submit your re-declaration to The Pensions Regulator within five calendar months of your third anniversary — even if no employees needed to be re-enrolled. This is a legal requirement. Deliberately providing incorrect information is a criminal offence.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

The Pensions Regulator takes non-compliance seriously. Penalties escalate rapidly:

Fixed Penalty Notice: £400, issued for failure to comply with a Compliance Notice.
Escalating Penalties for businesses with 5–49 staff: £500 per day until compliance is achieved.
Escalating Penalties for businesses with 50–249 staff: £2,500 per day.
Criminal prosecution: possible for wilful failure, including up to two years’ imprisonment for directors.

Real examples include a footwear retailer fined over £40,000 and a football club penalised nearly £23,000. The Pensions Regulator issued over 20,000 Fixed Penalty Notices and nearly 8,000 Escalating Penalty Notices in a recent enforcement year.

How Becketts Helps Employers

1. Compliance review:

We check that your auto-enrolment arrangements are correctly structured, your scheme qualifies, and your contribution calculations are accurate.

2. Re-enrolment project management:

We guide you through each step of the re-enrolment process — workforce assessment, communications, and Declaration of Compliance.

3. Scheme benchmarking:

We compare your current pension scheme against the market to assess whether it remains competitive on charges, investment options, and employer support.

4. Salary sacrifice advice:

We advise on whether salary sacrifice pension arrangements are appropriate for your business and how to implement them correctly.

5. Ongoing support:

We can provide an ongoing advisory service to handle future re-enrolments, regulatory changes, and scheme governance as your business grows.

Why Employers Choose Becketts

• Chartered Financial Planning Firm

Accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute every year since 2011.

Certified B Corporation

Recognised for high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

Recognised Top Financial firm

Becketts is consistently recognised as being one of the top 100 financial firms in the UK by FT Adviser (a Financial Times publication) and New Model Adviser from Citywire

Established and trustworthy

38 years of helping clients and over £1.7 billion in assets under management

High Client Satisfaction

Score of 96 out of 10 private client satisfaction in a recent client survey

Speak to an adviser about your workplace pension

Whether your re-enrolment date is approaching, you have questions about compliance, or you want to review your existing scheme, we are here to help. First meeting at our expense, no obligation.